What If I Said
by Aerial312
Summary: Post 3x16. Annie and Auggie go on that Friday night date.
1. Chapter 1

Title: What If I Said… (1/1)  
Author: Aerial312  
Rating: T

Characters: Annie/Auggie

Note: I'm a bit weary of putting a question mark for how long this will be (because I don't have the greatest track record for finishing those)…but I think it'll be longer than one installment.

_"__Do we dare to cross that line between your heart and mine__  
__Or would I lose a friend or find a love that would never end__  
__What if I said…__"-_ Anita Cochran, What If I Said

Annie stood looking at herself in profile in the full length mirror on her bathroom door. She tucked an errant lock of hair behind her ear, and smoothed her dress. It was kind of silly how much effort she'd put into her appearance for this date—it wasn't like she was going to impress _Auggie_ with how she looked. Still, she wanted to look nice on his arm. She was sure he'd arrive looking sharp. It was also ridiculous that she was nervous about tonight at all. How many times had she and Auggie gotten dinner together? Too many to count. But always at Allen's or takeout, never somewhere she'd wear a dress like this.

"Walker!" he called out from the courtyard below. "You ready?"

He had insisted on picking her up. She would have been happy to drive them like she usually did, but it seemed important to him, and she didn't really care, so she shrugged and said sure.

"You're early!" she shouted back. "I'll be down in a minute!" She gave herself one more look in the mirror, and headed down to meet him.

"Where is your coat?" he demanded, hands running down her bare arms as she kissed him quickly on the way to the car.

"Well, we're going to get dropped off right at the door, right? So I figured I didn't need one—unless you have something planned where I do?" She didn't know exactly what he had planned.

"No," he laughed. "But bare arms in November?"

"This dress wouldn't look right with a coat," she explained as he opened the door for her.

"Ah, so you're suffering in silence?"

"I'm fine," she assured him.

"You seem taller," he told her.

"I've got a fancier pair of shoes on," she grinned.

"Don't you wear your fancy shoes every day?"

"I do," she laughed. ""But not heels this tall—usually." She scooted over and he climbed in beside her.

"Just how absurd are _these_ shoes?"

She could have just taken her shoe off and handed it to him, but instead she lifted her leg onto his lap. He smirked as he grazed his knuckles along the expanse of bare skin below her hem—it was a pretty short dress, so that was pretty high up. Much higher than one could reasonably expect to find a shoe.

"I don't think you're going to find it there," she laughed as his fingers grazed her inner thigh.

"Oh, right," he smiled. "Shoe." He slid his hand down the smooth skin of her calf, and she inhaled sharply. That felt nice. She watched him examine her shoe in his hands. He shook his head. "That's one hell of a shoe."

"It's pretty fierce."

"That's one word for it," he laughed. She swatted his arm. He was now examining under the ball of her foot. "What is going on here?"

"It's got a bit of a platform," she grinned.

"A bit?" he asked in amusement. "Just high are these shoes?"

"Four and a half inches."

He shook his head. "I bet they look good, even if they feel absurd." She smiled. His hand was inching its way back up her bare leg. "No stockings," he noted.

"Stockings are annoying," she told him. "They get in the way."

He let out a throaty chuckle. "In the way of _what_ exactly?"

"Lots of things," she teased.

"I see…" His hand slid higher on her thigh, decidedly under her hemline now.

She squealed as his knuckles grazed a particularly ticklish spot. In the front seat, the driver remained focused on the road. If he heard what they were talking about-and he surely did—his face gave nothing away. Very professional. Annie grabbed Auggie's hand and slid it back down to safer territory. "Not in the car," she hissed quietly.

"He won't say anything."

"You know this from experience?"

He shrugged.

"Auggie!"

"Once or twice," he laughed. "I tipped him well."

"Still," she shook her head. "I feel like you'd have to be pretty damn drunk not to care that there's someone else…"

"Oh, totally trashed," he chuckled.

"I am not drunk yet," she reminded him as he began to kiss his way down her neck.

He slid his hand along her jawbone, turning her face toward him. Her eyes closed as he leaned in to kiss her properly. It was all still new enough to make her giddy. They were having a lot of fun exploring the new physical aspect of their relationship. So far there had been a lot of sex, and not a lot of talking. That's what tonight was for. Talking.

The idea of formally defining what this was is what scared her. Did they really need to? She wasn't entirely convinced they did. It had been fun winging it the last few days.

The more she researched the matter in the file from Henry Wilcox, the more she realized it was going to be incredibly hard to keep it from Auggie, and she had to. It was always hard to keep things from him, but now, doubly so. Lying was not the best way to start a new romantic relationship, but she had to make it work and hope he didn't end up hating her for it. She and Auggie could never do a romantic relationship halfway. It had to be all or nothing. And that scared the hell out of her.

She wished that the two events had happened in reverse. She liked to think that she would have turned down Henry Wilcox if what happened with her and Auggie had happened before that meeting. The file still fired her up though, so who knows what she really would have done.

His lips were soft against hers, a nice gentle kiss promising more later. His hand slid up her thigh, and she was tempted to suggest they skip dinner. She'd be happy to have fun for a while and then make grilled cheese at nearly midnight, like they did the night before, but he was so eager to take her out on a real date. And truly, she was excited too. This was so different for them. She was curious to see where he'd picked.

"Get your hand out of there," she laughed, as his hand found its way under her skirt once again.

"You don't like?" he asked, not moving his hand.

"Oh, I like. But I'm assuming you still want to go to dinner first," she teased. "If not…"

He sighed and removed his hand from under her hem.

She patted his cheek and pulled her legs off of his, straightening her dress. "Ooh, we're downtown. Where-?"

"I didn't want to just go somewhere fancy. I wanted to take you somewhere interesting, and I love Turkish and Lebanese food-"

"Zaytinya?" Annie asked eagerly.

"Well, that's a good sign," Auggie exhaled. For as randy as he'd been a minute ago, he sounded surprisingly nervous about this dinner part too.

"I have wanted to try there forever."

"Me too," he smiled.

"You sound nervous," she said, as if she wasn't also.

He chuckled wryly. "Yeah, I guess so. This is different for us."

"It is."

"It doesn't freak you out a little?"

"A little…" she admitted.

"Uh huh…" he smiled. He knew she was more nervous than she was letting on. The car came to a stop at the curb in front of the restaurant. "Ready?"

"Let's do this."


	2. Chapter 2

Note: It's amazing how much less time I have to write when I'm not commuting 2 hours a day on a train...

_"__Do we dare to cross that line between your heart and mine__  
__Or would I lose a friend or find a love that would never end__  
__What if I said…__"-_ Anita Cochran, What If I Said

Auggie's bedroom was bright in the morning. Very bright. The bedroom window faced east, and it seemed to be a bright, sunny day, not a cloud in the sky. That would be great later on, but now, at 7am on a Saturday, it was getting in the way of Annie's sleeping in. This wasn't the first time this week she'd slept over, so why hadn't it bothered her before? She thought for a minute and remembered that it had been pouring rain on Wednesday.

There were curtains on the window—maybe she should get up and close them. That though, would require shimmying out of Auggie's arms, and she didn't want to wake him. As far as she could tell, spooned in front of him, he was still asleep. His arm was curled around her waist, hand resting limply against her stomach. His breath was warm on her neck, the steady breath of sleep. Of course, the bright light didn't bother _him_.

They never did end up having that serious talk the night before at the restaurant. Sure, they talked plenty. About how good the grilled halloumi cheese was. About how he picked a delicious Turkish wine. About how olive oil seemed like a strange flavor for sorbet, but was surprisingly good, though not as good as the sour cherry. The restaurant was just too loud and they were too busy having their usual light, fun conversations to have a serious relationship talk. The date was really a wonderful time. He knew her so well, so he picked the perfect spot. It didn't feel that different from any of the other hundred times they'd hung out, except that they were eating at a fancier sport in nicer clothes.

And, of course, there was the fact that the night ended with sex. That was still a new feature of their relationship, though they'd gotten a lot of practice in the last week. On the ride home from the restaurant they had an even tougher time keeping their hands off each other than they did on the ride over, but managed to wait until they got back to his apartment—they weren't that drunk.

They did not, however, make it to the bed. Not the first time at least. The second she slid the door closed, he had her pressed against it. It didn't take long for their dressy clothes to end up in a heap on the floor. She smiled as she remembered him holding her up against the cool metal of the door. Eventually, they made it to the bed. He'd carried her up there, and she hadn't even thought twice about it at the time, but now, as she thought about it, it was impressive he knew his apartment well enough to make it up the stairs—carrying her—without his cane or even feeling around for where he was.

"Mmm, feel that sun," Auggie smiled into her hair. She scooted back against him and he tightened his grip. "Feels good, doesn't it?"

"Mmm," she had to agree that the warm rays did _feel_ good. She just objected to how damn bright the room was. "Did the warmth of it wake you up?" She was curious.

"Probably part," he told her. "But you're awfully fidgety when you're lying here awake."

"Sorry. I was trying to go back to sleep."

"Trouble sleeping?" he asked, concerned.

"No," she assured him. "It's just bright."

He laughed. ""You know, that didn't occur to me. That those warm sun rays I like so much make it bright in here. It's always dark in _here_," he tapped his head. "You can close curtains."

"Nah, I'm up now. And you like the sun coming through the window."

"I do…" he murmured, fingertips grazing up her abs.

She could see where this was headed. Well, why not, now that she was up? But instead of continuing his exploration, his hand paused just under her breasts. Why-? He had encountered her scar. It wasn't the first time his roving hands had found it—it was kind of hard to give attention to her breasts and not—but this time it stopped his action, his thumb going back and forth over the bottom of the puckered line of skin.

Annie clasped her hand on top of his. "You can touch it if you want. You have before."

"No, I don't need—it just had me thinking."

He didn't continue right away, so she rolled over in his arms, pressing her forehead to his. "What are you thinking about?" she asked softly.

"When you were shot, that's when I realized, you know, just how much I needed you."

"Was it?" she asked, hating that she'd been so oblivious to everything going on around her for so long.

"When the hospital called me…I just…" he took a deep breath before continuing, "And then I went into overdrive trying to protect you…" There more he'd told her about what had gone on while she was unconscious, the more floored she was about how brilliantly he had put the pieces together. How much he trusted that she was innocent… "And then you were in Russia, and I had to tell you, and-"

"And I hung up," she said sadly.

"You did what you needed to do," he told her. "You weren't ready to hear this then."

"I wasn't," she agreed. A second later she added, laughing, "Though in July, I would have been."

He thought about that for a moment. "In July, I hadn't realized…I wasn't there yet."

"I know."

"Explains a lot."

"About what?"

"About why we were so distant after Barcelona."

"That," she sighed. She wished that she hadn't pushed Auggie away in the pursuit of her mission with Simon. She had been so hurt, even though she had no right to be.

He tightened his grip around her waist. "I had no idea at the time how hard it must have been for you to hear me tell you I was going to propose to Parker."

"I was really glad you couldn't see my reaction to that," Annie admitted.

"I'm sorry," he told her.

"Don't be," she insisted. "We just weren't on the same page yet."

"We are on the same page now, right?"

He sounded nervous, and that made her smile. "We are." She kissed him on the lips.

Note 2: I have eaten at Zaytinya, and olive oil was one of the flavors in a sorbet medley we had for dessert. Odd, but tasty.


	3. Chapter 3

_"__Do we dare to cross that line between your heart and mine__  
__Or would I lose a friend or find a love that would never end__  
__What if I said…__"-_ Anita Cochran, What If I Said

_**Ding!**_ The computer yelled out as the error message popped up. The woman at the desk across the aisle looked up curiously. Annie frowned, and hunted for the volume control on the speakers.

Henry Wilcox had certainly given her quite a challenge with the matter at hand in the file. So far, of eight major players she'd identified, she only had sufficient clearance to read the agency file on two of them. This was the fourth angry ding she'd gotten in the last two hours. She still needed more info on those four, somehow. She sighed and sat back.

"Trouble, Walker?" Auggie asked, materializing at her side. He reached out, hand landing on her shoulder.

"No trouble," she scowled. He cocked an eyebrow at her. "I'm just bored."

"Bored?"

"I haven't had a case that got me away from this desk in two weeks."

"Welcome to _my_ world."

She clapped her hand over his and squeezed. "Not that I haven't enjoyed the last two weeks," she smirked. They had spent almost every one of those nights together.

He laced his fingers through hers and leaned in to whisper, "Just be careful that your boredom doesn't get you in trouble."

"I can't find the volume knob!" she hissed in exasperation.

"I can't help you with _that_," he laughed, "but go in that bottom right corner of your screen, click the little speaker, and pull the slider all the way down. You should just leave it there permanently."

"Right." She released his hand so she could grab the mouse. "There." He was still leaning He was still leaning in, so she tipped her head close to his. "All set now," she smiled.

His breath was hot on her ear as he told her, "I don't know what you're looking up in your boredom, but still be careful. The system keeps a log. If you get too many dings, it throws a red flag on your login that gets brought to someone's attention upstairs."

"Ah. How many is too many?" she asked.

He sighed. "I don't know. Those algorithms are above my clearance."

"Annie!" Joan called from the upper level. "My office, please."

Annie spun to look her way as Joan retreated and closed the office door behind her. She turned to Auggie, brow furrowed, and asked, "You don't think…? Not already…?" Things were still weird between her and Joan. They had certainly gotten better after she got back from Amsterdam, but it didn't help that Arthur and possibly Joan were implicated in the mess Henry had recruited her for. Recruited. That was a loaded word in their field. But it was accurate. He recruited her.

"How many dings did you get? I heard two."

"Four."

"Four?!" he asked, incredulously. "That's a lot."

"Mmm…" Annie agreed, as she stood and smoothed her blazer. "She didn't sound mad though."

"I think you're about to become less bored," he grinned.

Annie smiled. "What do you know?"

"Come see me when you're done with Joan."

She gave him a playful pinch in the side as she walked away.

Things were looking up for Annie as she left Joan's office twenty minutes later. She had a case, and wasn't going to be tied to her desk anymore. Better yet, she was headed to the part of the world that was most useful to her off-book task. It would be easy to make a few side trips if she was already in the region.

"Ready for a trip to Turkey?" Auggie asked, looking up from his screen when she click-clacked into his office.

"Ready for a trip that's for sure," she told him. "Turkey's nice." She was a bit more interested in Turkey's neighbor to the south.

"It is," he sighed wistfully.

"I forgot how much you like Turkey," she smiled, nudging his arm with her hip.

"One of my favorite places," he told her. "You're going as a graduate student studying Ottoman antiquities and the Turkish language, which is perfect because-"

"My Turkish sucks."

"I was going to say it needs practice," he chuckled. "You need to read this—" he handed her a file, "and learn all that info for your cover. You'll be meeting with a high level asset in Gaziantep."

"Gaziantep?" she asked. "I thought when Joan said Turkey that I was going to Istanbul. Where is Gaziantep?"

Auggie turned to his keyboard, "Gaziantep is one of the oldest continuously occupied cities. There is a lot of info about it in that folder. Here." A map popped up on the screen.

Annie was sure that all the info about the ancient civilizations in her folder would be an interesting read, but what struck her first, looking at the map, was that Gaziantep was only an hour or two away from Aleppo. "Cool."

"Now," Auggie began, nodding towards the screen, "This is a very dangerous area these days…and I can feel you literally bouncing with excitement."

She chuckled.

"Orders from Joan are to go, meet with the asset-"

"Yeah-"

"And stay in Turkey."

Annie didn't say anything in response to that. It would be easy enough to make a little side trip without drawing attention to the fact beforehand. Forgiveness was always easier than permission.

He caught her hand. "You're awfully quiet."

"Just reading the screen," she lied.

"This source is in Gaziantep. He's got lots of info for us that'll keep you busy. Don't go looking for a dangerous situation," he said. "Please."

She sighed and squeezed his hand. This was the first time the Agency had sent her out of town since their relationship had changed. Of course he was worried. There was no need to worry him more. "I won't." It was unlikely she could keep that promise and pursue the leads in Henry's case, but she could try, right? Well… "I won't go _looking_ for it," she clarified.

He nodded. She was pretty sure he could tell that her promise wasn't the most sincere. This keeping things from him was going to suck. She kissed the top of his head quickly. They were at work, but little shows of affection had never been out of place for them. "Come over tonight?" she asked quietly. Barber was just through the open door, chomping on a bag of salt and vinegar chips. "I'll have to pack, but I'd like to see you…"

He tipped his head in her direction. "Sounds good."

She ran her hand along his shoulders, eliciting a soft sigh, as she headed for the door. "I'll come get you before I head out." She could tell he still had misgivings about sending her so close to a war zone. And he knew her too well to really believe her promise to stay out of trouble. Trouble had a way of finding her like she was magnetic. He always found a way to help her out of whatever trouble she ended up in, whether he liked what she was doing or not. The trick here was going to be how could she seek his help if she couldn't tell him anything about what she was doing?


End file.
